9.5 Creating Configuration Links

You may find it convenient to create links whose destinations depend upon results of tests. One can use AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS but the creation of relative symbolic links can be delicate when the package is built in a directory different from the source directory.

Macro: AC_CONFIG_LINKS (dest:source…, [cmds], [init-cmds])

Make AC_OUTPUT link each of the existing files source to the corresponding link name dest. Makes a symbolic link if possible, otherwise a hard link if possible, otherwise a copy. The dest and source names should be relative to the top level source or build directory. This macro is one of the instantiating macros; see Configuration Actions.

For example, this call:

AC_CONFIG_LINKS([host.h:config/$machine.h
                object.h:config/$obj_format.h])

creates in the current directory host.h as a link to srcdir/config/$machine.h, and object.h as a link to srcdir/config/$obj_format.h.

The tempting value ‘.’ for dest is invalid: it makes it impossible for ‘config.status’ to guess the links to establish.

One can then run:

./config.status host.h object.h

to create the links.